DiRT Interview

Gavin Raeburn, Executive Producer, over at Codemasters, got around to answering a few quick questions, explaining a bit about their latest project, DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road - the new installment in the well-established rally simulation series, Colin McRae. After the game's initial announcement, we were curious about many matters and now we finally got some answers. Much to our delight, the game features racing against multiple opponents, as opposed to the familiar beat-the-clock single-car rush noted in earlier editions of CMR. This will no doubt be an important turning point for the franchise.

DIRT is all about dirt.

Now that's not exactly fair, now is it?

We've also discussed AI enhancements, the game's brand new engine, the Career mode, multiplayer and more.

DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road is being developed for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms and is expected to hit retail some time in the second quarter of 2007.

ActionTrip: What made you guys decide to shift the long-running rally series onto off-road turf?

Gavin Raeburn: In DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road, we wanted to offer a game that goes far beyond the traditional point-to-point style events, with a fresh design that appeals to a far wider and more diverse audience. What we are now offering is the opportunity to compete in a huge variety of off-road motor sports, both against the clock and AI opposition on different circuits from around the globe.

ActionTrip: Colin McRae franchise always showed that realism is the key to a good racing game. Is your team working towards highly realistic physics as before? Or are you toning down on that to achieve a more arcadish feel to the experience?

Gavin Raeburn: I've played many arcade racers where the car physics are either flawed or overly simplistic, and are therefore unpredictable and unintuitive. I've also played many sim racers where the physics are unnecessarily unforgiving, not allowing for the restricted senses the player has within the game environment (e.g. lack of g's, peripheral vision, body roll and weight shift etc). Our goal with DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road is to provide realistic, but highly accessible car handling through a good mix of solid physics and a transparent and intuitive controller interface. We want the player to feel at one with the car they are racing in and the track they are racing on.

ActionTrip: So, this is the first Colin McRae game that features actual races against multiple opponents. Explain a bit about what your team is doing with the AI.

Gavin Raeburn: The challenge of off-road racing is quite different from the tarmac-based events we've worked on with the Race Driver series, since there is much less idea of the ideal racing line. Therefore, we've given the AI more freedom than ever to use the entire track. This is most obvious in the ten-car wide land-rush starts, where the cars will still be three or four wide by the time they reach the first corner. It also allows a much wider variety of overtaking moves, with the AI able to dive up the inside in a much more human manner, or even drive all the way around the outside of another car. We've worked hard to allow the characteristics of each individual AI driver affect all areas of race-craft, from how aggressively they push into corners and against other cars, through the consistency of their performance around the track, to how well they can catch slides and recover from errors. Each driver will adapt its style to each race discipline, for instance showing aggression on the short and sweet rally cross circuits, but being more patient on the more technical rally raid courses. All of this combines to give the player a much more varied experience moving through the career.

ActionTrip: CMR 3 featured some of the most impressive car models of its time. The same thing goes for CMR 04 and CMR 2005. Can you offer us a peek at what your design team is doing with some of the car models in DIRT?

Gavin Raeburn: There is a very high expectation for us to deliver great graphics and the car models really push this technology in DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road. The damage system has been completely overhauled and a new real-time damage engine has been introduced. The speed and impact against another object is measurable against the cars material type and is reflected in the amount of damage it causes. This is also enhanced by the particle system, which emits broken car parts, environment collisions, car metal sparks, clusters of dirt, puddle splashes, rain effects and other road surface debris you'd expect to see. All the cars include extra texture detail and normal maps to help achieve the level of paint scratch and damage detail expected from a rally car. The level of complexity in the car geometry has also increased over previous versions including high-resolution car interiors with working dials. All the cars self-shadow and fully reflect the environment, which make it feel very realistic in terms of the lighting and interaction with the surroundings.

ActionTrip: With next-generation consoles taking sway, gamers will surely expect a lot in the graphics department. Tell us more about the technology used to power DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road?

Gavin Raeburn: To ensure we could achieve true next-gen standards in graphics and playability, a brand new game engine, known as Neon, has been developed by Codemasters in conjunction with Sony. Every element of Neon is new, meaning there is no legacy code carried over from previous CMR titles. The impact of Neon has meant that artists have had unprecedented scope to bring to life some of the most realistic visuals ever seen in a racing title. Our designers have also had a field day coming up with new and innovative gameplay features previously not possible, and of course, introducing the multiple opponent races for the first time in the series.